Analysis of the Play Equus Essay

With its minimalistic set design, sm only cast, and a stage with nearly no lighting, ray Shaffers round Equus relies heavily on a masterfully written script to open its message with the audience. The lam is neither great theatre nor bad psychology, but it has elements of both (Witham). With the assistance of the fictional character Martin Dysart, a electric shaver psychologist, the play analyzes the parental, religious, and internal reasoning behind the heinous act of a range boy (Alan Strang) and calls for Dysart (along with the audience) to interview and reevaluate their ideas of passion and freedom.While the disc overies occur slowly throughout the entirety of the play the largest impact rises from interaction with Alans parents, Dysarts monologues, and the climactic scene of Act II. There is no denying that the interactions with and among a small frys parents have a large impact on shaping the childs mind and morals and who that child will ultimately become (Shumaker & Heckel, 39). Sex and religion were of import factors in Alans childhood development due in no small part to the horror between his parents.His mother, a Christian from an upper class horsey family who married beneath her, shared religion and chimerical horse stories with her son. His openly atheistic father refuses to allow his sons religious worship explaining his admit views of Christianity as just bad sex (Equus, localization of function 530). He further implies connections between religion and sexual desire when he reports to Dysart his observations of Alan A boy spends night after night having this stuff read into him an needy man tortured to death- thorns driven into his head-nails into his hands-a spear jammed through his ribs.It can mark eachone for life, that kind of thing. Im not joking. The boy was absolutely fascinated by all that. He was always mooning over religious pictures. I mean real kinky ones, if you receive my meaning. (Equus, status 530). When his rel igious fixation was blocked, it coerce Alan to transfer his normal social views of sex and worship onto his pagan, equine religion (Busiel) . His having been denied the freedom of religion by his father and having his image of the crucifixion of Christ replaced with that of a horses head, is the most probably gun that began Alans strange pagan-like worship of the Horse-God Equus.As strange and twisted as Alans worship of horses may have conceivemed, Dysart could not deny the raw passion behind it-a passion he both greatly lacked and envied. In the process of understanding Alan, Dysart is forced to make a painful discovery of his self. He is stuck in a lifeless, childless marriage of antiseptic proficiency, sustained only by his fascination with quaint Greek mythology (Rooney). He is made aware of his hunger to be someone instinctive, passionate, and capable of being transported by worship the way Alan is (Rooney).Dysart tells the audience of a dream he had where he was a chief n on-Christian priest in Homeric Greece sacrificing hundreds of children as a ritual to bring good fortune to the land, with every child he begins to feel more nauseous and worried that he may be discovered. He motto Alans face on every victim (Equus, Location 290). One could simply deem this a nightmare and be done with it but in truth it brings to light Dysarts fear that by curing Alan he will also be hurting him. One of the final, and arguably most powerful, scenes of the play unfolds as Dysart is finally able to draw from Alan what happened the night he blinded the horses.After a failed cause to see a pornographic movie together Alan and Jill (one of the stable hands) returned to the stable for a roll in the hay at Jills request. Feeling the eyes of Equus upon him, Alan is unable to perform. He can see and feel nothing but Equus When I touched her, I felt Him When I closed my eyes, I saw Him at onceI couldnt feel her flesh at all (Equus, Location 2300). The ultimately unsuccess ful attempt at a normal relationship with a fille causes Alan to feel not only the shame of having failed as a man but also shame from having desecrated his temple of horses. The horses staring eyes become unbearable.Alan and Dysart both become the voice of Equus, mocking and call down Alan both for his failure and for even attempting to escape from Equus eyes I see you. Always everyplace Forever Kiss anyone and I will see. Lie with anyone and I will see. And you will fail (Equus, Location 2346). Unable to stand it anymore, Alan takes the hoof pick and stabs out the horses eyes with a final cry of Thou-God-Seest-nothing (Equus, Location 2364). In his final speech, Dysart tells that he will cure the boy and erase all traces of Equus from his mind. He will remove Alans pain and give him a normal life.In his farewell to Alan he shows at just how high a cost normalcy comes You wont gallop any more, Alan. Horses will be quite safe. Youll save your pennies every week, till you can chan ge that scooter for a car, and put the odd 50p on the gee-gees, quite forgetting that they were ever anything more to you than bearers of little profits and little losses. You will, however, be without pain. More or less completely without pain. (Equus, Location 2433). Despite the consequences, Dysart finally accepts his assigned role as a healer because all of the alternatives are unacceptable (Witham).In the end Equus leaves the audience with the question of whether satisfying the demands of those around us is worth losing important pieces of ourselves such as our passion and freedom in all its forms (religious, sexual, etc. ). True, Alan will be better once he is cured and Dysart may come to terms with his life and learn to appreciate what he has but the entire situation could have been avoided had Alans parents allowed him to decide rather than forcing their contrasting views on him. We can make do one way or we can thrive another.